Sixteen Corton Charlemagne 2002 tasted

Our Euryanthe wine-tasting group (10 people, among them WijnIdee editor Jozef Schildermans and collaborators Michiel Carpentier, Max Rive and Herwig Janssen, the author of these notes) recently got together for a very interesting , educational and fun evening . Corton Charlemagne at age 7 is too young but with all these premature oxidation (‘premox’) fears , we needed to check our cellars . Unfortunately , more than half of the wines showed some major flaws… just incredible . There were 4 wines that were truly great … but that should have been way more , given that these wines are very expensive . It shows again why Burgundy wine is oftentimes called a mine field.

This was a blind tasting.

Wine 1 : Wow , this is super wine : citrus and straw on the nose , very mineral wine with an extremely long finish . Some delicious toast . I was sure this was Coche-Dury … and it turned out to be my WOTN . 97/100. Coche-Dury.

Wine 2 : Bad luck for this one to come after wine nr 1 . Less balance , reductive style and a hint of oxidation . 87/100. Tollot-Beaut.

Wine 9 : A very pure chalky nose , very mineral and linear , very long , great Corton Charlemagne. 95/100. Morey Blanc. (What a surprise : one of the wines of the evening was one of the least expensive : I remember buying this wine at the Domaine from Morey’s good looking daughter for not much money .)

Wine 14 : Golden colour , butter scotch : yep , oxidative , this was probably excellent but is going downhill now. NR. Henri Boillot. (I was shocked when its identity was revealed : I never have had a bad bottle of Henri Boillot and tasted at least 10 different ones from 2002 a couple of weeks ago : all young and delicious. Guess this was an off bottle, or Corton Charlemagne is his week spot. )

Random Quote

I drink champagne when I’m happy and when I’m sad. Sometimes I drink it when I’m alone. When I have company I consider it obligatory. I trifle with it if I’m not hungry and drink it when I am. Otherwise I never touch it – unless I’m thirsty.